Iterations of prototypes...
12:11 p.m.
24/01/20 - In the past, artists used to repeat certain subjects several times, specially religious scenes. For example, Doménikos Theotokópoulos, known as El Greco, one of the most original talents in Art History, made numerous iterations of Christ in the Olive Garden, with slight variations.
The reasons for this is not quite clear: Is it the result of his Bizantine education, based in the repetition of prototypes? Or is it that these subjects required no complex knowledge from the audience? There are no answers to these questions, but what we do know is that the repetition of the formula perfected the results.
In the painting of 1590 The Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane (L’Agonie du Christ au jardín des Oliviers) we see two well-defined levels between the angel (celestial level) and the sleeping Apostles in the cave (earthly level), while Jesus is part of both of them. The light is directed to the figure on the top and it reaches the image of Jesus. It is a cloudy night and we see the soldiers from afar. The main figures are lengthened and their skins are white, as it was characteristic in El Greco's art.
L’Agonie du Christ au jardín des Oliviers, by El Greco (ca. 1590)
Technique: oil on canvas
In the 1600 iteration, the soldiers barely stand out, the sky is darker and Jesus has descended to the earthly level.
L’Agonie du Christ au jardín des Oliviers, de El Greco (ca. 1600)
Technique: oil on canvas
The last of the variations we'll study here belongs to the years 1600-1607 and is part of the permanent collection of the Museo de Bellas Artes de Buenos Aires. Here we see Christ placed in the same level as the angel and in the earthly level we find the sleeping apostles, but their size has been modified. The moon has disappeared and the sky is totally dark, which adds to the drama of the scene.
Jesus en el Huerto de los Olivos, by El Greco (1600-1607)
Technique: oil on canvas
The three paintings have their similarities and differences, but the maturity of the artist has given more detail to the artwork of 1600-1607. His work was totally original and it anticipated the paintings of other masters, like Cézanne and Monet. All three of them produced a very personal catalogue, in which they showed their skills in repeated images. And although El Greco experimented with his paintings, thanks to his fertile imagination, he also made his art self-referential and thus closed, self-fed but also isolated.
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